book 36 – looking for alaska
Looking for Alaska is a different kind of coming of age book, about teenagers away at boarding school who deal with the usual (rules, authority, grades, pushing boundaries) and the less usual (loss, grief, looking for meaning). John Green is a current favourite among teens, I suspect because he doesn’t shy away from the awkward topics that are on their minds and that parents struggle to discuss with them, and he isn’t afraid to throw in a bit of tragedy and heartbreak to force his characters to face some of the bigger questions of life. This is possibly why Green has such appeal for boys as well as girls, given that at their core, his books (or at least the two I’ve now read) are romance stories.
He is a humorous and witty writer, which is particularly noticeable in The Fault In Our Stars where the teen characters are virtually prodigies of wit, and he seems to favour characters who are extraordinarily well read. His colloquial style of writing seems to add to his popularity and appeal. Certainly my son writes the same way and is possibly one reason he likes Green’s books.
Rating: Borrow it. Although if this is your first John Green book, I might be inclined to recommend Fault in Our Stars ahead of this one.
